The Apollo XIII Club

I've been surrounded by the NASA Space Program all my life. Today, as the crow flies, I live sixty miles from launch pad 39A, where the space shuttle launches. Sometimes I go wander around Kennedy Space Flight Center. It always amazes me how man could create something so incredible out of nothing more than an idea. Believe it or not, it reminds me of how God created the Earth out of nothing.

I lived in the Houston area when Apollo XIII took its ill-fated flight. There was no hope. There was no possible way to perform an in-space rescue. The craft, with the three brave astronauts aboard, would perish. Lives would be lost and mankind would be set back decades.

Then flight director, Gene Krantz uttered words that literally changed the outcome of that mission when he said, "Failure is NOT an option." They methodically worked the problem and brought three astronauts home in a crippled space craft.

The human spirit is like that. The will to survive and thrive pushes us to move forward and find a way to succeed. I apply that to my writing. It's tough. Downright impossible at times to find the right words. That's why I created my own Apollo XIII club. I have a hat with the official patch of that NASA mission. When things get tough, I put on my cap. Literally. It inspires me. Reminds me that I, too, can bring my writing craft safely home again.

God has placed within all of us the ability to go far beyond the odds, the impossible, and the roadblocks. My hat helps me tap into that. I'm a member of the Club. I boldly go where I've never been before to complete my mission.

Maybe you don't have any interest in NASA or space but that same pioneer spirit is inside you. I wish for you today that you become a member of the elite Apollo XIII club, whose dedicated soldiers refuse to stop until the craft is safely where it is supposed to be!